this was a contest in Antwerp, Belgium, that went for 3 days. I went there for two days, 2-4 hours for each session.

The first day I went with a D7000 and 24-70 lens. This yielded a lot of busy images (the whole crowd was in focus for example). I'm not very happy with the images of that day. Upon viewing these at home my theory was that I needed a longer lens to blur the crowds.

The second day I rented a 70-200, used it on the D7K, and used my 24-70 with my trusty old D70 (5 focus points, ouch!). When the skaters would be close I would use the 24-70 and when they were further I'd use the 70-200.

I had to remain sort of stationary because I didntt really want to be moving around too much with over $4000 hanging around my neck. The 24-200 range I had was pretty cool.

Switching camera's was not handy. The D70 shots had a large failrate (focus, mostly, and bad noise as it got darker)

shooting from a bit lower would get the crowds out of the picture, it would also frame the skater in the empty space above. I think most of these need looser crops. the viewer can't see what the skater is doing/what he's doing it over. 3 is my favorite. if it was shot from lower/I could see the ramp, or gap, or box he was doing the trick over, i think the image would be pretty good!